Marquis de Lafayette

Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, (1757 - ?) was a French nobleman and military officer who participated in the later stages of the North American Rebellion.

Lafayette traveled to America in the spring of 1777, landing at South Carolina on 13 June. Benjamin Franklin sent a letter to George Washington recommending that he take on Lafayette as an aide-de-camp, in the hopes that this would influence the French government to provide more aid. Lafayette took part in the Battle of Brandywine on 11 September, where he was wounded in the leg. Despite his wound, he was able to prevent the American retreat from becoming a rout, and Washington cited him for "bravery and military ardour" and recommended him for the command of a division in a letter to the Second Continental Congress. After recuperating from his wound, Lafayette assisted General Nathanael Greene in scouting British positions in New Jersey. On 24 November Lafayette led a force of 300 men to defeat a numerically superior force of Hessians in Gloucester. He then returned to the Continental Army's winter camp at Valley Forge.

Following the American defeat at the Battle of Saratoga on 21-22 October, sentiment in Congress turned against Washington. On 14 February 1778 he was summoned to York, Pennsylvania to learn that Congress was relieving him of his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and was creating a body called the Board of War to oversee military affairs. Washington was offered a position as commander of the southern theater of the war, but instead resigned his commission.

Lafayette presumably returned to France after the end of the Rebellion in June 1778. His role in the Rebellion was commemorated by members of the Wilderness Walk, who named the settlement of Lafayette, Jefferson after him.